Jack Nicholson To Retire? Say It Ain’t So

US gossip site, Radar is stating that Jack Nicholson (76) is following in the footsteps of Sean Connery and Gene Hackman by retiring. The screen legend is apparently finding it difficult memorising lines, therefore deciding to bow out gracefully, rather than ending his career with something bland – like How Do You Know (I kid, I kid). Having said that, reports also state that Jack (isn’t that what everyone calls home?) isn’t retiring – and that he’s ‘actively reading scripts’. Who do you believe?

Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood career has been anything but conventional. As an actor he has played the game his own way, choosing a selection of roles, which on paper appear to be oddball decisions – but nearly always turn into box office and awards gold. That’s why he’s one of the greatest movie stars of all-time.

Who else could have the varied likes of Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Easy Rider, As Good As It Gets, The Departed, Batman, Terms Of Endearment and The Shining on their CV? And that’s not to mention a variety of other great roles – some of which have gone under the radar – The Fortune with Warren Beatty, Sean Penn’s The Pledge and Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger to name but a few.

Many have tried to copy Nicholson’s onscreen persona (Christian Slater and Leonardo DiCaprio, I’m looking at you) but none have succeeded. There is a danger that rests on the surface of all his characters, the bad boy image that he has off-screen seeps over, creating a distinctive energy that is impossible to replicate. He has played a multitude of different characters, in a variety of genres, but they are all unmistakably ‘Jack’.